Despite the security concerns, Warner Bros. “Joker” took theaters by storm over the weekend and made a whopping $13.3 million on Thursday previews, which is a new record for the month of October previously held by “Venom.”
Many people are hailing the film as a masterpiece and Joaquin Phoenix’s performance is nothing short of masterful.
But “Joker” is actually quite possibly the most mediocre film ever made.
“Joker” made $93.5 million over the weekend, which is a milestone for the genre when you consider the security implications.
Police departments across the country assumed that “Joker” had the potential to inspire something catastrophically violent, like a mass shooting over the weekend but thankfully nothing occurred.
People flocked to the theaters regardless of the possible threat of seeing the movie in a potentially dangerous environment.
Most folks took to Twitter to rave about Joaquin Phoenix’s performance and even compared it to Heath Ledger’s of the same character in “The Dark Knight.” Nobody can really argue Phoenix isn’t an incredible actor and he’s certainly really good in “Joker,” but the movie as a whole is just adequate.
“Joker” tells the sinister character study story of a daytime clown, Arthur Fleck (Phoenix), who is disregarded by society and decides to get his revenge on those that didn’t care to pay attention to him. And therein lies the problem.
Fleck is a mentally disturbed involuntary-celibate that you’re not moved to empathize with because how they try to hook you is quite pathetic. Helmed by director Todd Phillips, it’s sophomoric storyline that’s about as shallow as a Walmart baby pool.
The biggest problem with this origin story of the Joker is that the character is supposed to be a criminal mastermind and nothing this depiction does has any sort of genius to the character. There’s never a moment where you think, “oh, that’s clever.” In fact, everything the character does is alarmingly pathetic.
Fleck consistently daydreams with delusions of grandeur, desperately wanting to be famous. And it seems like the movie’s modus operandi is to detail how awful society is to this person specifically to gain forced empathy from the audience.
It does not work in the slightest. You may even leave the theater out of frustration because you feel, in some ways, manipulated by the film.
It’s not interesting or thought provoking and the ending is a façade, disguised in a really violent “shocking” moment in order to fool the audience.
However, Phoenix gives a masterful performance and genuinely did some creepy things that would make most people’s skin crawl. That may be the saving grace of the whole film. His laugh is like hearing nails on a chalkboard and that’s intentional.
Outside of that, the film is a marginal mediocre perfectly adequate film that’s ever been made.
And to call this film a “superhero” movie is disingenuous. This was an excuse to make a film of this nature under the Warner Bros./DC Comics/Batman umbrella. This didn’t need to be a Joker origin story at all and in that way you feel conned by the whole experience.